Perspectives
and
Paradigms
Perspectives:
Why?
• Why?
– Can’t see everything at once
• Therefore, we focus and ignore
• For example, portraits
– Scientists can’t observe everything at once
– DIGRESSION: science is both noun and verb
• To non-scis, sci is body of knowledge
• To scientists, science is activity to change body of
knowledge
– Doing science usually requires narrowing focus
Perspectives in Siam:
A Fable
• Three Blind Men and an
Elephant
– Whether or not you’ve
heard this story before,
you can be sure you will
hear it in the future
:sevitcepsreP
So What?
• So what?
– What you see depends on
• Where you observe
– In front? In back?
• How you observe
– Telescope? Microscope?
• What you are looking for
– Depends on the color of your glasses
• What’s actually there
– Empirical!!!
Sociological Perspectives Based
on Size and Focal Behavior
•
We will examine sociological
perspectives that differ in:
1. Levels of analysis
2. Conceptions of what are the most important
social phenomena
Levels of Analysis
• Microsociology
• Mesosociology
• Macrosociology
– Often meso is considered a form of macro
Three Different Ideas About
What’s Most Important I
1. Creation and maintenance of social
integration
– Functionalist perspective
• Structural functionalist
2. Individuals and groups trying to maximize
interests
– Conflict perspective
Three Different Ideas About
What’s Most Important II
3. Active individual trying to make sense of a
situation and give it meaning
– Symbolic interactionism
What’s Most Important?
Functionalist Perspective
• Consensus or Functionalist
– “Officially” structural-functionalism
• I also call the consensus perspective
– The most important elements of social life
are those that foster social integration
– Hobbesian problem of order
• How is society possible?
– Interested in how parts of society (structure)
work together
What’s Most Important?
Conflict Perspective
• Conflict
– Social life is a constant battle between
individuals or groups, each seeking to
maximize their interests
• Interests – outcomes that benefit the actor
• One form of conflict: zero sum game
Conflict Perspective:
Zero Sum Game
• Zero sum game - situation in which total
amount of some “goody” is fixed. Only way
one actor can get more is for one or more
others to get less
What’s Most Important?
Symbolic Interactionism
• Symbolic interactionism
– The most important aspect of social life is the
active individual trying to make sense out of a
situation and give it meaning
– Also called interactionism
– Seems to be the most difficult perspective for
students to recognize
Symbolic Interactionism:
Interaction and Symbols
• Symbolic interactionism – because
individual makes sense of situation largely
through interactions with other people
– Interactions at the time and in the past
• Symbolic interactionism – because
interactions and meanings depend on
symbols
Symbolic Interactionism:
Micro and Macro
• Focus on interaction makes SI
microsociological
• That many symbols are widely shared
brings in macro
– Like social facts, symbols can be outside us
Symbolic Interactionism:
Thomas Theorem
• If men define situations as real, they
are real in their consequences
– W.I. Thomas & D.S. Thomas (1928)
• More narrowly,
People decide what to do next on the
basis of what they think is going on
now
– This is the version I usually use on exams
The Two Questions Constantly
Facing Each Actor
1. What’s going on?
2. What do I do now?
• Answer to “What’s going on?” is the
definition of the situation
– Example of subjective reality
• The answer to “What do I do now?” is
actor’s actual behavior.
– Example of objective reality
Two Questions II
• The Thomas Theorem states that answer
to “What do I do now?” depends on
answer to “What is going on?"
Verstehen and the
Thomas Theorem
• Verstehen: to understand situation from
actor’s point of view
• Practical Uses of the Thomas Theorem:
to understand or predict behavior of others
• To use Thomas Theorem, need to know
how actor sees situation. One way to find
out is to use Verstehen.
Verstehen Is Useful
• Verstehen probably most practically useful
thing you will learn in this course
Review
• Levels of analysis (micro, meso, macro)
• Three important perspectives based on
what is considered most important
• Central issue of functionalism
– Hobbesian problem of order
• Central issue for conflict
– Zero-sum game
More Review
• Central issue in symbolic
interactionism
– Why interactionism?
– Why symbolic?
– Thomas theorem
– Verstehen
Apply Perspectives to Football
Perspectives and Giddens et al
Essentials of Sociology 3rd
• Our textbook identifies five perspectives
instead of the three we covered
1.Symbolic interactionism
– Same as in lecture
2.Functionalism
– Same as in lecture
3.Marxism and class conflict
– Considered part of the conflict perspective
Perspectives and Giddens et al
Essentials of Sociology 3rd (2)
4. Feminism and feminist theory
– Considered mostly part of the conflict
approach
5. Postmodernism
– Hard to know where to put it. Somewhere
between conflict and symbolic interactionism
Perspectives and Paradigms
•
•
Perspectives sometimes called
paradigms
Paradigms help working scientists:
1. Help specify what problems are important
2. Help specify how to go about solving
problems
– In ways convincing to other scientists